Stavanger Bay Cause the faint of heart gonna fall apart

She wasn't sure, as he spoke, what she had expected either.  Whatever it was, it wasn't this.  Hell, she'd taken precautions against this.  It was the reason she'd called, the reason she refused to challenge Sandpiper without some measure of the crew present; to win with an audience was to prove that it wasn't only your decision.  It allowed your crewmates to back their own interests, and if any had interceded on Piper's behalf, likely she'd still hold sway.  She would have liked him to have been there, but Sandpiper hadn't allowed her the time.  She'd had a crew stolen from beneath her paws before; she would not ever believe she had done the same thing here.

Suddenly she was exhausted too; still angry, but his own calming took much of the wind from her sails.  Instead a sort of dejected acceptance overcame her, and she no longer bothered to try to explain.  Just as she could never understand his reasons, he would not hers.  She just watched him go, silently, and felt her own sort of mourning for what had just taken place.  This wasn't what she had wanted, but she knew in hindsight, it didn't matter.  She would have done the same again in a heartbeat.

This was her home now too.  And she'd rather leave than answer to a wolf who had no grounds, and would likely have lorded her undeserved seniority over her.  Awful as this was, it was at least better than that.  This was the tale she continued to tell herself as she walked away, opposite the direction Smokestep had gone, her course set for the border.  She had a lot to think about.